Sewage is foundflowing into creek

Gerald Johnson, an environmental protection specialist with SAWS, eyes the flow from a storm drain under the Brazos Street Bridge.

Photo By Express-News graphic

A SAWS production crew works to repair a sewage leak on South Brazos Street next to Apache Creek in San Antonio. LISA KRANTZ/lkrantz@express-news.net

Sandbags plug a storm drain with a sewage leak under the South Brazos Street Bridge over Apache Creek in San Antonio. LISA KRANTZ/lkrantz@express-news.net

It smelled like sewage, looked like sewage and coated the walls of the concrete pipe with the slime of sewage. But it was coming out of a storm water pipe under the Brazos Street Bridge and flowing into Apache Creek.

That's a violation of federal law and wasn't what the San Antonio Water System wanted a reporter to see when it took him along on an inspection of West Side creeks.

A month earlier, the utility had tested the site and found no sewage. It expected to find the same Thursday and show the high bacteria counts that have plagued the West Side creeks for decades aren't caused by sewage but rather by homeless people, birds and dogs living along them.

As it turned out, though, the untreated waste was traced back to a broken clay sewer line, installed in 1928, a block away.

Flowing down the concrete banks of Apache Creek and eventually reaching the San Antonio River, the stream of effluent had a bacteria count more than 20 times what is considered safe for swimming by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The leak is indicative of one problem with SAWS' sewer system that has drawn the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency. Last year alone, SAWS reported more than 450 sewage spills. The EPA has threatened to sue under the Clean Water Act to force SAWS to repair and upgrade its system at a cost SAWS estimates would be $1 billion.

In addition to leaks like the one discovered Thursday, SAWS also has had several large sewage overflows recently. On Sunday, an estimated 448,800 gallons of sewage overflowed into the bed of Salado Creek near International Airport from a pipe clogged with debris. Crews worked until Thursday to clean that spill. In October, 4.4 million gallons of sewage spewed for three days into Espada Park when a main ruptured.

SAWS is trying to prove to the EPA it doesn't need a billion-dollar overhaul but instead is pursuing more aggressive and frequent pipe inspections and cleaning.

The San Antonio River Authority drew up a list of almost a dozen sites on the West Side creeks with continuously high bacteria counts it has asked SAWS to investigate. So far, that has resulted in the discovery of three leaking sewage pipes — including the one Thursday.

“Nobody would say our system is perfect and does not leak,” SAWS spokeswoman Sarah Gatewood said.

SARA has set a the goal of making the San Antonio River and all of its tributaries clean enough for people swim in and is working with utilities like SAWS to eliminate pollution from leaking pipes.

“We see our job as encouraging them very strongly,” said Suzanne Scott, SARA general manager. “It's is sort of a process of elimination.”

Scott agrees with SAWS that leaks aren't the only cause of pollution in the river and creeks but for SARA to get to its goal, every source needs to be minimized.

By Friday, crews were finishing the repairs to the broken sewer line near the Brazos Street bridge.

But since the sewer system on the West Side is one of the oldest in the city, the challenge of making it leak free isn't easy.

“I am very encouraged by what SAWS is doing,” Scott said. “We all have to work together and be committed and diligent.”

If that happens, then the city has a shot at having water clean enough to swim in, Scott said. And to give tours of the West Side creeks that don't involve the stink of sewage.